Stop Frame

Wow, right on target...

38 years ago yesterday, we landed on the Moon . Ever since, the space program -- around the world -- has gone backwards. Almost immediately after Neil Armstrong transmitted, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. Eagle has landed", President Nixon started hacking at NASA' s budget. Congress followed suit and that's been the trend and pattern ever since. The engineering nightmare known as the space shuttle was the result, an under-funded, under-engineered, over-wrought, half-assed manned space vehicle that has never lived up to a single promise. Most stories in the press blame NASA but the real blame lies with the political leadership of the United States. NASA said the shuttle would cost X and Congress told NASA it could have three-fourths of X. NASA cowered and said, "Okay." Congress then gave them one-half X. On and on, asking for more while paying less. NASA's "fault" lay in never saying, "Well, that's not enough to make this thing wo...

A two-fer deal here, since neither is very long.... Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books. I've tried, and a friend gave me a paperback copy of the first, but it fails utterly to grab my interest. The first two films are snooze-worthy. While the first does a decent job of introducing everyone, the second isn't worth remembering. I didn't bother to see the third at the theatre because the second was so...dull. That was a mistake. The Prisoner of Azkaban was superb and proved that the problem with the first two films was the director. The Goblet of Fire , the fourth film, continued the trend with yet another director, and now I'm completely hooked. Happily, The Order of the Phoenix , the fifth film, continues the trend. Mostly. I qualify that because not a lot really happens. Indeed, in terms of the series as a whole, Order completes its task within the last half hour or so. Most everything else is just fluff. Thankf...

I'm a Porsche 911! You have a classic style, but you're up-to-date with the latest technology. You're ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you're one of the elite,and you know it. Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

I'm a Talent! You're a risk-taker, and you follow your passions. You're determined to take on the world and succeed on your own terms. Whether in the arts, science, engineering, business, or politics, you fearlessly express your own vision of the world. You're not afraid of a fight, and you're not afraid to bet your future on your own abilities. If you find a job boring or stifling, you're already preparing your resume. You believe in doing what you love, and you're not willing to settle for an ordinary life. Talent: 59% Lifer: 31% Mandarin: 41% Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

Awesome, simply awesome....

Or at least, that's how it appears at the moment. You have the latest Jodie Foster film, The Brave One , which looks an awful lot like an old Charles Bronson film, namely Death Wish . The setup and premise is a virtual carbon copy: Loving couple broken apart when one spouse is brutally killed. In the case of The Brave One , they're out for a walk and get mugged; in the case of Death Wish , it's a home invasion robbery. Foster's character is unsatisfied with the "progress" being unmade in finding her husband's killer, so she goes on the hunt herself, popping bad guys while seeking The bad guy. Bronson was more straight-forward; he just starts striking back at muggers and the like and by accident -- or so it seemed -- he does eventually kill his wife's killers. Death Wish was raked over the critical coals as providing provocation for vigilantes. Since The Brave One has a more A-list director ( Neil Jordan ), plus stars Foster, it will probably get...

As I've mentioned , Jeff Kirvin and I don't see eye to eye on politics, but when he's buzzing on technology, he's spot on more often than not. In The iPhone is a bad phone he writes: Let’s look at this objectively. This is, at minimum, a $500 phone that has no tactile feedback for dialing, no voice dial, no smart dial (ie dialing 5478 to narrow your contacts to KIRV), no Bluetooth stereo headset support, no dial-up networking support for an attached computer, 2.5G data that is normally about 2-3 times dial-up modem speed, no video recording, no MMS for sending pictures, only takes pictures at 2MP and automatically resizes them to VGA for email (no way to override either of those sizes). The SIM card is removable and will work in other devices, but other SIMs will not work in this GSM world phone, so you’ll have to pay AT&T roaming charges to use this outside the US. Unlike every other phone available today, there is no free 14-day grace period and if you buy an ...

Oh, I feel so relieved. For a moment there I almost thought that there was an issue with climate change, global warming, and catastrophic weather change. But given the number of "Live Earth" concerts that are going off, apparently all is well. I come to this conclusion by the simple logic that if things were really, really horrible, the concert participants -- good little stewards of the world that they are -- wouldn't be barfing so much carbon into the air as they go about lecturing the rest of us. With song. I don't give a fig about "carbon offsets" and being "green". My lifestyle is more green than any of those involved in this fiasco; every Greenpeace test I take tells me so. That's irrelevant, however. The problem with carbon offsets is that they don't address what is purported to be the issue, i.e., pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. That you can offset this by purchasing an indulgence from someone else misses the point. Yo...

I have this fantasy. I imagine the day when US animators start treating their art like their Japanese brethren, as a means of making film that isn't limited to a kid's audience. Consider Paprika , a very R-rated animated film, or Akira or the entire Ghost in the Shell series. The mind boggles at what might result if a talent such as Brad Bird , backed by a studio like Pixar , took on a more adult project, like Roger Zelazny 's Lord of Light . (An interesting story of a cancelled film version may be found here .) Until then, we have Ratatouille . It might be an over-statement to call Ratatouille the best film of the year, but not by much. Certainly if Beauty and the Beast can get such a nomination, this film can because it is far more deserving. Ratatouille raises the bar in so many ways it's amazing to consider that it is "merely" an animated film. Brad Bird ( The Iron Giant , The Incredibles ) rules animation the same way that light and air rule your li...